Dweller in Darkness
by Perfect Carnage
Summary: (Something written spontaneously that I just couldn't leave alone) The extremely short story about a shoggoth's arrival in Cape Town. Note: Named character doesn't have anything to do with canon counterpart, just first name that popped up.


On the first day of spring the city of Cape Town was subjected to a storm front the likes of which had never before been seen, buffeting the buildings with torrents of rain and afflicting the homeless with razor sharp winds. The torrential downfall lasted for a full week before it subsided and the people were able to return to the normal spring time rituals and unofficial celebrations of the grip of winter's cold fist. Of course, in this city the difference between seasons wasn't as prominent as in prior years, but traditions still held under the changing climates. It was a few weeks before the penguin sanctuary saw a trickling in of visitors again, and this meant that the dissolved carcasses were only discovered long after the culprit had left the area. From what officials could gather, the flightless birds had been partially digested by some immense creature, though what could have done such a thing left them at a loss. The remains were on the shore and too far from the ocean that it could have been the work of some freak jellyfish or cephalapod, and even then why would the bodies be regurgitated? And adding to the mystery was the fact that some of the carcasses had been discovered in their hovels pressed up against the wall opposite the entrance, almost as if they had been running from something. This only added to the investigators' bafflement, and as hard as they tried no logical explanation could be found.

On a seemingly unrelated note, Mr Randolp Carter was dealing with a problem of his own. He was losing his mind. He knew this because in the dark hours of the night he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, and not just from one place. Oh no, to him every square inch of darkness was filled with eyes just behind the threshold, watching and waiting. For what he didn't know and by God he didn't have any wish to find out. But it wasn't just this that seemed to affirm his own notions of mounting insanity. On the morning of the first day that he imagined the endless eyes there had been a strange trail of slime in his driveway that reached the side of the house just before vanishing. It had been a topic of curiosity for him for a while before he moved on to more important things at work. Only when he came home and he saw the glistening trail with the dead bodies of ants trapped in it was the memory triggered and the hose used to wash away the nuisance. But then, the next day he could have sworn that he heard a curious sound emitting from the walls that could not be checked from the list of mundane sounds that he ran over in his head. He'd gotten up and taken a torch to see through a hole in one of the walls for any signs of what it could be, yet nothing could be seen save for an almost mockingly empty darkness and a surely imagined echo that whispered after him in an alien tongue. And upon returning to sleep he had not found restful dreams but instead terrifyingly alien that could barely be remembered when he woke covered in chilling sweat. His wife told him that it was just the stress from his job, and he had believed her for a while. Until he heard his son and daughter talk about strange dreams they'd been having, and an odd shape seen when going down to the cellar when playing Hide and Seek. That had been the confirmation he'd been looking for, and when their mother had gone he had asked both children about what they had seen and knew. The deceptively young ones, believing it to be a game merely giggled and said that they'd been saying those things to mess with him. And so he'd given a thin smile and left them to play.

But that had been two days ago, and right now he knew that either he was mad as a hatter or there was a terrible presence in his home. He'd gotten home this afternoon and his wife had just been gone. At first he had thought that she was out visiting or shopping or some other such triviality but as the hours wound down he'd come to realize that something was terribly wrong. When he went to go see if his children were alright he'd come across the sight of their rooms vacant, and only after a desperate search of the premises did he spot a clear viscous substance on their beds. One that his panic stricken mind recalled had been present in the driveway when all this had started. And so, with a heavy heart and lead feet he trudged towards the cellar door, ready to meet whatever demons had ruined his idyllic life. The pistol clutched in his shaking white-knuckled hand offered no comfort of mind to Carter and was brought along almost by formality, as he knew that whatever lay at the end of the slimy trail was something far beyond a mere man. He pushed open the door and peered cautiously through the opening. Darkness there, and nothing more. He flicked on the light switch and soon the darkness was vanquished by the light, and he saw nothing save the silvery trail that led down the stair. The steps didn't do anything as generic as creak when he stepped on them, instead remaining silent and leaving Carter with only his own pounding heart to fill the silence. Stepping down from the last step, he turned and looked to where the trail led feeling his fear grow within and the urge to flee screaming and pleading within his skull. The far wall lay in darkness even with the light turned on, and even as Carter turned his torch on it it stayed in darkness, though adopting a lighter shade. He didn't have time enough to realize what this meant before innumerable rows of eyes opened along the wall and countless maws opened along with them. Long tentacles speared from the darkness and grabbed hold of Carter's frozen form and drew him in with predatory haste, though such a thing was not necessary. His mind had fled the body on astral wings the moment the shoggoth had revealed itself, and all that was left was the inanimate statue of flesh that was to be consumed.

After a few minutes of torturous silence a thick squelching could he heard in the silent house, that was soon followed by a triumphant alien cry that held no place in the world of men **"Tekeli-Li!"**


End file.
